How to Break the GOP’s Grip on the South

In May, Democratic strategist Tharon Johnson of Georgia had strong words for his party’s efforts to elect Democrat Michelle Nunn as the next senator from the Peach State: In brief, register unregistered voters.

“We have to make a firm commitment to register 300,000 unregistered voters in Georgia so that we can expand the electorate to give us a good shot of winning in November,” Johnson told Newsweek last month. “Expanding the electorate by registering these unregistered voters gives Democrats the best chance of winning in Georgia.

According to a new report by Benjamin Jealous, former head of the NAACP and now a senior fellow at the liberal Center for American Progress, Democrats could make serious gains in the South if they register some of the many millions of unregistered black, Hispanics and Asians, and then get those new voters to the polls on Election Day.